Three journalists have been arrested and detained in Abidjan prison on charges of 'incitement to theft, pillaging and destruction of public properties through the media'.

The first Encounter of Filmmakers from Africa, the Caribbean and their diasporas, spanning nine African countries and 18 countries in Latin America, North America and the Caribbean was held in Havana, Cuba, in September.

Plus ça change...

A series of interviews of human rights defenders from Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa has been released by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), in a context of increasing harassment and obstacles to civil society activities on the African continent. Human rights defenders from Algeria, The Gambia and Guinea, interviewed on the occasion of the publication of the 2011 Annual Report of the Observatory in the framework of the 50th ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), report the main restrictions on the freedom of action of human rights non-governmental organisations in their respective countries.

'I am a woman trapped in a man’s body. People ask me whether I am a woman and I answer, no. I have no feelings to women, I prefer relationships with men.' Gulam Peterson sighs and takes a long drag from his cigarette: 'Transgender sex workers have a tough time. They often get beaten up and raped by so-called clients insisting on a full house. Going to the police is not even an option. Going to a clinic or a hospital even more so,' says the tall, lanky man, dressed today in khaki slacks and a body-hugging denim jacket.

'There is nothing new in this aggressive and bullying stance of the EU in the EPA process. The last Conference of African Ministers of Trade held in Kigali once again officially registered its condemnation of the EU’s approach and methods in the EPA negotiations. It is in this context that we welcome the statements by Ghana’s Minister of Trade as well as the ECOWAS Director of Trade to the effect that member-states will continue to work to reverse the multiple conflicting trade regimes that the EU is imposing in West Africa through the EPA process, and that genuine developmental outcomes rather than arbitrary deadlines are the appropriate and legitimate reference point for ECOWAS in the EPA negotiations.'

As thousands assemble in Durban for this year’s climate talks, the countries of the global South hope for some listening as well as all the talking, says international climate campaigner, Nnimmo Bassey. Bassey’s new book ‘To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa’ shows that the climate crisis confronting the world is mainly rooted in the wealthy economies’ exploitation and abuse of fossil fuels. Unless the connection is made between resource extraction, profiteering and climate change, the talks can not resolve the crises we all face.

This Berghof Conflict Research paper, ‘Anti-terrorism Legislation: Impediments to Conflict Transformation’, reviews the ambivalent impact of terrorist ‘blacklisting’ regimes on peace processes with non-state armed groups, and argues that when applied unwisely, they might interfere with efforts to find a political solution to asymmetric intra-state conflicts. Indeed, the political nature and inconsistent application of terrorist proscription tends to blur the distinction between legal and unlawful political activism, encourage state repression of unarmed dissidents, and fuel radicalism.

China will increasingly look to Africa over the next decade as the world's most populous nation seeks to ensure it has sufficient food supplies, according to a study. While China has is recent years turned to Africa to secure energy and raw material resources to fuel its rapidly-growing economy, it will soon be for food commodities, according to Standard Bank research analysts Simon Freemantle and Jeremy Stevens.

Fred Magdoff is professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and adjunct professor of crop and soil science at Cornell University. As climate crisis threatens millions of people around the world, the latest round of climate talks, COP 17, began in Durban on 28 November. Farooque Chowdhury interviewed Fred Magdoff for about what strategies and tactics people can employ to tackle climate crisis at COP 17 and beyond.

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) has recently issued a report that examines four recent detailed studies of countries’ mitigation pledges under the Cancun Agreements, for the purpose of comparing developed (Annex 1) country pledges to developing (non-Annex 1) country pledges. It finds that there is broad agreement that developing country pledges amount to more mitigation than developed country pledges.

In [PDF]:

- The Bangkok Principles on the Status and Treatment of Refugees
- African NGO resolution on the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and displaced persons
- Asia Pacific model pledge towards upholding refugee rights worldwide
- MIGREUROP explores readmission instruments
- The situation of refugees in Israel
- Question & answer: the Cessation Clause examined
- The Cessation Clause: a primer
- ECtHR allows extradition to Rwanda of alleged Hutu genocidaire with refugee status in Denmark; UNHCR does not intervene
- ‘Is this Caribbean idyll the worst place in the world to be a woman?’
- WikiLeaks diplomatic cables: a tool for refugee legal aid workers?
- In limbo in Latvia
- Asia Pacific Regional Immigration Detention Working Group workshop
- Country of origin & legal news headlines
- Requests, announcements, publications & opportunities

Fahamu Refugee Legal Aid

No easy way to deal with them!

This is a call for materials for a biographical book on the life, work and legacy of David Kisule Kato – the deceased Ugandan human rights defender for sexual (and other) minorities. The biography is being developed and written by researchers in the Law, Gender and Sexuality Research Project of the Faculty of Law at Makerere University – Kampala. We are interested in a range of materials including essays, fiction, poetry, web blogs, art, crafts, photographs, film, documentaries, speeches, diaries, letters and other correspondence, music, academic publications, etc. that reflect any aspect of the life and work of David Kato.

This week, former Ivory Coast ruler Laurent Gbagbo was extradited to the Hague to account for alleged human rights violations before the International Criminal Court. Justice appears to be slower in coming to rival fighters loyal to current President Alassane Ouattara. According to Committee to Protect Journalism research, Ouattara's forces have been involved in the deaths of two journalists, most recently Gilles Tutsi Murris Dabé.

The ANC will push for a new interventionist economic nationalism, rather than a simplistic nationalisation of the country's $2.5-trillion in resources not yet mined, which was what ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema had wanted. The Mail & Guardian has learned from various sources that central to this plan is to force competitive input prices through taxes and other penalties and for state institutions to take bigger stakes in companies that hold key strategic infrastructure minerals.

This critical review of carbon trading in Africa includes analyses of the context and trends in the carbon market in Africa; offset projects in Uganda, Ethiopia and South Africa; and carbon finance and regulation. It shows how carbon trading provides new and different ways of profiting at the expense of a deteriorating climate.

The Sudanese Ministry of Petroleum has suspended the exportation of the South Sudanese oil through north Sudan till an agreement is reached between the two governments on transit fees, the acting Petroleum Minister in Sudan, Ali Ahmed Osman, has said.

Nnimmo Bassey's new book 'To Cook a Continent: Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa’, published by Pambazuka Press, shows that exploiting Africa’s resources has delivered huge profits to the North and huge damage to Africa. Overcoming the environment and climate change crises means also addressing corporate profiteering and resource extraction.

Standing across the street from the American embassy in Tel Aviv, more than 200 Eritrean asylum seekers chanted 'Yes to justice! Yes to humanity!', and demanded international intervention to stop torture camps in the Egyptian Sinai. Protests by African asylum seekers in Israel are growing, in the face of increasingly tough policies by the Israelis. 'We’re here to stop this torture and to call the world to be aware of this,' said Habtom Mehari, a 30-year- old Eritrean asylum seeker, at the rally on 25 November.